Sony to close factory, cut workforce by 2,000

Sony Corp. says it plans to close a factory in central Japan, tweaking its restructuring plan by cutting 2,000 jobs from its workforce in moves expected to save it $385 million.

The company's Minokamo factory, in Gifu prefecture, employs 840 people making lenses for digital cameras, lens blocks and mobile phones. Sony said Friday that those functions would be transferred to other factories.

That closure plus early retirement programs at Sony's headquarters and other facilities will cut its job force by 2,000. About half the reductions will be in non-manufacturing support jobs.

Its profitability battered by Japan's March 2011 disasters and other factors, Sony reported the worst loss in its 66-year corporate history for the business year that ended in March, with red ink of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion).